Saints DE Junior Galette fired up for Rob Ryan's new 3-4 defensive scheme

New Orleans Times-Picayune | Feb 23

As soon as the New Orleans Saints announced they were altering their defensive scheme from a 4-3 to a 3-4, Saints fans piled onto Twitter boasting about how much defensive end Junior Galette would become a "beast" on the field thanks to the new scheme.

Galette has shown flashes of his ability to corral opposing quarterbacks during his first three seasons in New Orleans. Part of that is because he's only received playing time in flashes as Galette quickly pointed out he only played in 26 percent of the Saints' defensive snaps in 2012.

And still, Galette compiled five sacks last season in only 12 games, which placed him third on the Saints behind Cam Jordan (eight sacks) and Will Smith (six). Jordan played on 91 percent of the team's defensive snaps last season, while Smith was in on nearly 87 percent of the snaps.

Galette said it doesn't matter to him if new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan slotted him as a down lineman or an outside linebacker. Galette said he didn't play defensive end until his senior year in college as he played outside linebacker his first two years.